Poppy at The Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Missouri on September 23, 2025.
Photos by Ana Massard. ©2025.
Review by The Pit Magazine Contributor Kayla Hayden.
Despite the rainy, gloomy weather on Tuesday, September 23rd, Kansas City metalheads showed up ready to go hard for Poppy at Uptown Theater. Her stellar headlining show comes to KC at about halfway through her “They’re All Around Us” tour with support by MSPaint and Dying Wish.
This tour comes after some notable collabs from Poppy, with bands like Bad Omens and Knocked Loose, who she won a Grammy with in the metal category this year. She also just recently dropped her newest song with metal icons Amy Lee of Evanescence and Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox, which currently has about 8 million streams on Spotify.
On her own though, Poppy is a force of nature on stage and uniquely, well, Poppy. Her songs from her album Negative Space fit seamlessly together in her set, creating waves of calm that almost lull you into a sense of tranquility only to hit you harder when she moves into some insane breakdowns. Her scream is so notable and easily identifiable to me, as it is so unique to her voice. She is known online to have a monotone, robotic, almost AI like voice and persona which contrasts well to her music but also is very true to Poppy. I think this works so incredibly well with her use of synth and heavy metal in her songs.
The crowd was so engaged and showed no signs of dying down throughout the night. More than once, when Poppy and her band left the stage the crowd quickly began chants of Poppy’s name, practically begging for her to come back out and continue the fun. There was no shortage of crowd surfers, multiple circle pits (as requested by Poppy herself) and a wall of death during her finale, “New Way Out.” A few personal favorite songs from her set were “V.A.N,” her collaboration with Bad Omens released in 2024, and “Scary Mask” where she returned to stage with her scary mask which imitated the creepy masks the members of her band wore throughout the show. This mask has become one of the iconic trademarks of her recent tour.
As a first time goer to a Poppy show, I think it’s safe to say that it is hard to view a Poppy concert and not have a good time. From the crowd, to the stage performance, to witnessing the talent and enthralling movement of Poppy on stage, this show landed at a 10/10 for me. Poppy is an artist who is only just getting started. I look forward to seeing her become a prolific face in the metal scene for years to come! Catch her on the rest of her tour, “They’re All Around Us” this fall!
Photos by Ana Massard. ©2025.
Review by The Pit Magazine Contributor Kayla Hayden Photos in Kansas City, MO. ©2025.
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